Well, after about 30 mins of listening (without yet re-adjusting Audyssy for channel levels) whoever said Axiom may have missed the mark with this one is VERY wrong. This is not only a home-run, it's a grand slam! Right off the bat, I had to adjust my center level from +2 db to 0 db (same levels as my M80s now). I also brought my center crossover down to 60 Hz to match my mains. The sound is FULL and RICH, and so far to me sounds almost JUST like an M80. When I moved from the center seat to the left and right seats, the vocals still sounded like they were coming from the center (with my VP150, I would tend to lose localization when I moved off-center).

I'm giddy right now!

I just wanted to take a couple of mins to share some pix with you guys, but now I am going back to calibrate the system and really give it some serious listening time.

I am kind of wondering why Axiom didn't make this 10 years ago when the rest of the speaker line up was first brought out. It seems like a no brainer(20/20 hindsight and all that) to have made it specifically to go with the floorstanders, while the VP150/VP100 are a near perfect match for the bookshelf speakers, in particular the M2/M22.

Thanks guys! (Tom - I should have never used the sense of scale term! The screen is 126" diagonal)

I took a break to let you know that the Audyssey setup came back with recommending the center at 0db, and the M80s at +1.5db. It chose all front speakers (mains and center) as large, with a 40Hz XO frequency (100Hz for the QS8s). I gave it a go for a couple of songs, and it's was like taking cotton out of my ears. The bass is much tighter than before, and the vocals are stunning. I do not run the system with Audyssey (I always choose no room eq), but I use it to easily set my levels and XO points.